City Of Gods And Monsters Novels & Stories

--- **The Crawling City** The echoes surge, not toward us-*into* each other. They fuse, bones snapping, flesh knitting into a grotesque metropolis that rises from the shore: towers of rib cages, streets paved with fingernails, a cathedral of fused skulls where the girl floats above an altar of coiled viscera. *"Welcome to the Sermon,"* she says, gesturing to the city. *"Where the Silence is *preached*."* Eden's breath hitches. "We need to go. *Now*."

“You’re safe from other monsters.” My quickened pulse returned. “Other monsters? Are you a monster? Is Em?”

Back from the gods. Before I could step closer, a whisper curled from the stone. "You shouldn't be here, wolf." The shadows behind the door shuddered. A woman stepped forward—not a guard. Not even a priestess. Something older. Her skin was inked in runes. Her eyes bled starlight. Her mouth never moved, but I heard her. “This is where gods are born,” she said. “And where monsters are made.” I didn't flinch. I bared my teeth.

They are doomed to eternal hell and serve the Devil, making unending assaults on human beings in an attempt to subvert souls to the Devil’s domain. The news was delivering all kinds of information about the demons and political view points along with religious beliefs. Was this really the time to be discussing those things? As I had seen, buildings were on fire. Dragons and fire breathing monsters roamed the city, setting anything they could set their eyes on ablaze until it burned to tar and soot. Monsters that had hundreds of teeth instead of a face, as tall as 20 feet were having the time of their lives chomping their way through the town.

I said, only a little sarcastic. “The only monsters in my house are you and me, and I can’t fit under your bed,” he said in a bland tone. “Har-har.” I mocked him. I didn’t want to think of myself as a monster, even if I was. “The most common in this particular city are Demons, Gargoyles, Vampires, and Witches. Werewolves do roam around here every now and then, but they like more open space for when they shift,” he continued like there had been no banter between us.

Agonized screams filled the air as the captain and his team, covered in blood, found the horde nearly impossible to hold back. Monsters fell and soldiers died. The monster army engulfed Geras. Meanwhile, desperate efforts were underway to find the Godkey inside the city. Everyone was working to the best of their abilities. "HQ, there are too many monsters! We can't hold out much longer!" Faced with the massive horde, the scant number of defenders could not prevent the monsters from flooding into the city. The Creator knew of the Godkey's existence and was sending wave after wave of powerful monsters to destroy it.

In the kingdom of Serenacia, all hell broke loose as the wailing and anger of the king's sons, Odell, roared through the city while everyone feared, but also mourned the death of the king of Gods who ruled them, but now lay with a stake in his heart. And now he was dead. Something bewildering and impossible to think about, because as it is said, Gods can live forever, yet here it is. The clouds became darker as lightning of heavy strikes shook the earth, and the humans knew that the only way for them out at the moment, was the cry out to the Almighty, Creator of God's, and the owner of the heavens and earth.

Exclaimed Caleb, his eyeballs almost jumping out of their socket. "Yea," Anya smiled at an excited Caleb. "Damn!" Caleb continued. He couldn't get enough of the news. "Did you guys run into any vamps?" "Like vampires?" Anya asked a little bit shocked than she should be. "Yes!" "No. Are we supposed to run into them?" "Gee, that is THEIR city. Just like Mongroove is known to be the Haven of werewolves, Suncity is the base of Vampires in the whole of Gloss Angeles."

'Demonic monsters? Ambrose turned his head to her but was smacked with several wooded logs on his chest. She glared at him but then turned her eyes to Laylin. Her familiar bushtit flew in to sit on her shoulder “Yesterday the demonic monsters took over. They have surrounded the Palace, you can't even get in. The Palace might have been infested by these monsters that escaped the Other World.” She stood close to Laylin and pointed her finger at him, “The city is swarming with these monsters, people are dying and we are going to stop the wizard who has done it.”

I tighten my grip on David and ask, "Your proclamation—what's the big picture? Where do you see this going? I'm curious, Alpha Nicodra. Do you have any specific ideas regarding how exactly you're going to resurrect our culture?" He lifts his glass to me and says, "I'm happy to hear your interest. My ideas are truly rooted in our conformity to a way of life that was simply not built on the beings we are. Frankly, Brigette, we are not human. In all honesty, we're monsters—at least to them, at least in our physiology." "Monsters," I repeat, tasting the word on my tongue.